# Gray Brown-Service Mortuary, Inc. v. Lloyd

> Supreme Court of Alabama · January 15, 1999 · 729 So. 2d 280

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9935896

## Case

- **Full name:** Gray Brown-Service Mortuary, Inc. v. Fred Patrick Lloyd, Jr.
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Alabama
- **Decided:** January 15, 1999
- **Citations:** 729 So. 2d 280; 1999 Ala. LEXIS 37; 1999 WL 14704
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Houston
- **Judges:** Hooper, Houston, Kennedy, Lyons, See
- **Cited by:** 4 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9935896

## Opinion text

Do we award less for mental anguish for what is done to the quick than for what is done to the dead? I think not, but when I review the cases in which this Court has ordered a substantial reduction of the damages awarded for mental anguish (see Kmart Corp. v. Kyles , 723 So.2d 572 (Ala. 1998); Foster v. Life Insurance Co. of Georgia , 656 So.2d 333 (Ala. 1994); Sears, Roebuck Co. v. Harris , 630 So.2d 1018 (Ala. 1993)), I must weigh the facts of those cases against the facts in this case, which a jury reviewed and weighed and could have determined amounted to outrageous conduct on the part of Gray Brown-Service Mortuary, Inc. A finding of the tort of outrage requires a determination that the defendant caused "severe emotional distress to another." American Road Service Co. v. Immon , 394 So.2d 361 , 365 (Ala. 1980). Gray Brown-Service does not argue on this appeal that the evidence would not support such a finding.
I voted to affirm a $500,000 compensatory award, most of which was for mental anguish, in First Commercial Bank v. Spivey , 694 So.2d 1316 (Ala. 1997). In my opinion, a $500,000 award for "severe emotional distress" is not excessive. Likewise, a punitive damages award of three times the amount of compensatory damages awarded is not excessive. BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore , 701 So.2d 507 , 516-23 (Ala. 1997) (Houston, J., concurring in the result). In this case would affirm a compensatory award of $500,000 and I would not order a remittitur of a punitive-damages award of $1.5 million. Therefore, I concur.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9935896. Public record. Not legal advice.